Major financial institutions are heavily investing in digital currency products, with
Ethereum seeing the biggest surge in interest.
Recent figures
released by CoinShares indicate a massive $1.9 billion influx into digital asset funds in just the last week.
This pushes the total investments for July to an unprecedented $11.2 billion, easily surpassing the previous high of $7.6 billion observed in December of last year.
This upward trend has now persisted for 15 consecutive weeks, showcasing the sustained confidence institutional investors have in the digital asset market.
Ethereum Eclipses Bitcoin’s Popularity Among Institutions
While Bitcoin once reigned supreme in the realm of institutional crypto investments,
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency based on market value, is now attracting significantly more attention.
The CoinShares report highlights Ethereum’s outstanding performance for the week, noting that it pulled in a remarkable $1.59 billion,
representing its second-best weekly inflow on record.
Insights from Soso Value corroborate this trend, revealing that
Ethereum-based products outperformed Bitcoin
in terms of new investment flows on each of the five trading days last week.
BlackRock’s ETHA has emerged as a frontrunner in this space,
rapidly becoming one of the fastest-growing Ethereum investment vehicles, now managing over $10 billion in assets.
The recent surge has propelled Ethereum’s year-to-date inflows to $7.79 billion, exceeding its total inflows for the entirety of 2024.
SharpLink’s chairman Joseph Lubin, emphasized the strength of market momentum by stating:
“Ethereum is entering its next chapter: one where serious capital, experienced leadership, and deeply aligned builders will push it into the core of global finance.”
Is It Altcoin Season?
The CoinShares analysis suggests that the crypto market could be experiencing an
“altcoin season,”
given the comparatively weaker performance of Bitcoin-focused investment products.
Bitcoin saw modest outflows of $175 million last week, part of a larger trend that reflects investor movement into other prominent altcoins such as
Solana and XRP.
Simultaneously, investment vehicles that bet against Bitcoin also witnessed a decrease of $4.6 million, indicating diminishing interest in negative positions.
In contrast, funds focused on altcoins showed substantial gains in activity last week. Solana attracted $311 million, XRP secured $189 million, and
SUI brought in $8 million.
However, not all altcoins benefited from this positive trend. Litecoin faced outflows of $1.2 million,
while Bitcoin Cash experienced a decrease of roughly $660,000.
So far in 2025, cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin and Ethereum have collectively attracted over $1.5 billion in new investments.
James Butterfill, Head of Research at CoinShares, attributes much of this activity to increased speculation surrounding potential approvals of US-based Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)
that focus on altcoins.